Raises for DHHS staff send wrong message

August 28, 2013

Sen. Gene McLaurin sent the following letter to N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Aldona Wos and Governor Pat McCrory, asking Wos to rescind the recently reported $22,500 and $23,000 salary increases awarded to two of her top aides, both 24 years old with minimal work experience, who happened to work previously on Governor Pat McCrory’s 2012 gubernatorial campaign.

“These raises were apparently given in April 2013 at a time when the governor himself admits that he asked executive agency heads in March to implement a salary and hiring freeze. This is not the time to offer $85,000-plus salaries to inexperienced state employees. To make matters worse, DHHS has awarded salary increases totaling $1.7 million since the governor’s hiring and salary freeze. Other hard-working state employees, teachers, and highway patrolmen have received no pay raise this year. Having spent my career in business and in local government where fair and just compensation systems were adopted and followed, this sends the wrong message to state employees and taxpayers of N.C. who deserve better than this.”